Cheap Dot Tel Alternative

Despite it’s short time on the market, an alternative to .Tel is already available (and is just $.99 at Godaddy!). I know some people are predicting that business cards will go the way of postal mail and printer paper when the computer was introduced… err… I mean, I know that some people think that business cards may become obsolete because of .tel, but anyway, enough chit chat. Let me present you an alternative to .tel that’s cheaper.

Drumroll please…

I present to you… DOT INFO

Check this. Not everyone has a “tel” and not everyone knows what a “tel” even is. Sure, it’s probably the root for some Latin word, but isn’t Latin dead? Universally, “info” is known by all. “Info,” of course is short for “information,” a word in the English language that is alive and healthy (unless you listen to the naysayers who think English will disappear like the dollar in favor of a universal world language or some other BS the negative Nancies are spewing these days). Anyhow, if you visit a site with the .info extension, you expect… information.

BEHOLD: ElliotSilver.info… voila – a virtual business card! I know you can’t “click to call” but all you need to do is look at the number and press those buttons on your mobile phone. Sure, it’s cumbersome, but isn’t these days? I sure h8 reading posts by ppl tryin to keep em to 140 charactrs or < on Twit – that’s cumbersome too, no?

Now I know the information isn’t stored in the center of the Internetical universe or wherever the .tel information is locked down, but for Pete’s sake, you can save a boat load of money, which can be reinvested into other great up and coming extensions like .mobi and .eu.

About The Author: Elliot Silver is an Internet entrepreneur and publisher of DomainInvesting.com. Elliot is also the founder and President of Top Notch Domains, LLC, LLC, a company that has sold seven figures worth of domain names in the last five years. Please read the DomainInvesting.com Terms of Use page for additional information about the publisher, website comment policy, disclosures, and conflicts of interest.

25 COMMENTS

But the .INFO doesn’t have an API that can be used to modify NAPTR DNS records with a latency of 6 hours, has to be hosted somewhere (too many choices!), is one character longer in the extension, and, oh man, where do I stop?

You’ve taken your previous post on learning HTML -WAY- to far this time Silver…

Clearly understand your points about the dot info domains, but technically there are alot of differences between the two and that’s what makes a dot Tel domain so unique. Not only are there major technical differences, but the dot Tel’s are mobile ready right out of the box and nonTechie folks can utilize them immediately from anywhere. Only the future will tell of it’s success and that will depend mostly on it’s popularity or not.

This is a good post! And it is a good alternative not to mention every other alternative out there already! I mean if you see JohnSmith.net, JohnSmith.info, JohnSmith.com, JohnSmith.travel, JohnSmith.us…..anybody should figure out that it would be a site about John Smith….right? In regards to the the .tel being easy to set up because it doesn’t have to hosted…etc well…..I mean it’s 2009, if you do not know how to make a quick wordpress page with your name on it well I’m sure you’ll know someone in your family or amongst your friends who would do it for you in minutes for free…. There is one thing that is pretty cool about .tel though… their sexy commercial…that’s about it!!

I was very frustrated with the process. I did not receive any instructions on how to set up, but then I stumbled upon Andrew’s blog and set it up last Sunday. It was easy….almost like a Facebook profile.

Yes, .info is $0.99, .tel is more than $10,
but I do not agree with him. because there are some fundamental differences between .tel and other extensions.
.tel stores data on DNS, not like others which stores data in a web server. I looked his demo site on my Blackberry, yes, it looks no big difference with .tel. but it is slow, because .tel is suit for mobile devices , but other extension not. Most important is that, you need a web server (host) for your .info, you need at least minimum knowledge of web site and programming, although it is easy for Elliot to set up a simple web server/page, but is still a “Rocket Science ” for may many normal people. With .tel, it is a much much easier task, I think my grandma can set .tel up. I have not got a chance let her try to setup one of my .tel domains, I will and will let you know the result.

Hi elliot,
Yes, .info is $0.99, .tel is more than $10,
but I do not agree with him. because there are some fundamental differences between .tel and other extensions.
.tel stores data on DNS, not like others which stores data in a web server. I looked your demo site on my Blackberry, yes, it looks no big difference with .tel. but it is slow, because .tel is suit for mobile devices , but other extension not. Most important is that, you need a web server (host) for your .info, you need at least minimum knowledge of web site and programming, although it is easy for Elliot to set up a simple web server/page, but is still a “Rocket Science ” for may many normal people. With .tel, it is a much much easier task, I think my grandma can set .tel up. So I think .tel will have a great chance of success, That’s why I build http://www.dotteldirectory.net/ which only allow .tel domains to list.

Ok, so I never read the whitepaper on .tel, but I know enough to know that it isn’t all stored in the DNS.

I can see how all the data is stored in the dns, but where is the template webpage for .tel being served from? Not the DNS. Some webserver somehwere. My guess the A record for .tel points to a webserver, and the webserver queries the DNS for the data to fill in the template. Did anyone read the whitepaper enough to be able to give me a quick explanation?

More than anything, its the brand, .info is always used to be a site with dry information and it doesnt have an API Moreover, its too late to be .tel for .info i suppose, though people all over the world do not know much about .tel, internet gurus, and webmaster know far about it and the impression of .info that was made in public cannot be erased that easily
Just my thoughts though

John Colascione on I Bought a 4 Word .com Domain Name@Dave, I actually read this post yesterday before looking into it again. It had been a year since I revisited the list. This post was

Arockiam J (@Arojagan) on I Bought a 4 Word .com Domain NameActivatingDesire, ActivatingServices would have been a better name than just activating. If only two domains available say Activating.com and LickMyNose.com which one you will buy?

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